Acne and Oxidative Stress: Is the Beauty Ingredient an Antioxidant?
March 26, 2021
Acne and Oxidative Stress: Is the Beauty Ingredient an Antioxidant?
In this article, I would like to talk about acne and oxidative stress. Acne is a common problem in adolescence, but there are some people who still suffer from acne in adulthood. The acne that is difficult to heal is called “intractable acne” and some people visit a specialist such as a dermatologist.
This acne is also related to oxidative stress. In this article, I explain the relationship between oxidative stress and acne.
Types of Acne
Acne is often divided into the following three types.
White pimples: pimples that appear white due to sebum clogging the pores and causing them to rise
Black pimples: pimples that appear black due to sebum clogging the pores and opening the pores
Red pimples: Pimples that appear red due to inflammation caused by sebum clogging the pores.
The most common type of acne is red pimples, which swell up with pus when the inflammation becomes severe. This condition is called yellow pimples, and some people go to the hospital for pus drainage treatment to remove the pus inside. For intractable acne, many people suffer from red pimples.
The most common place for acne to appear is on the face. When you have acne on your face, you can see it yourself and it bothers you and makes you depressed when you look in the mirror. In fact, the reason why acne tends to form on the face is related to oxidative stress.
Acne and Oxidative Stress
The face is the most exposed part of the body to the sun. While the scalp is protected by the hair, the skin of the face is directly exposed to UV rays. When UV light hits the skin, it turns into hydrogen peroxide, or reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are the source of oxidative stress, a substance that rusts the body and can cause sunburn.
The skin on the face is more susceptible to oxidative stress than the skin on the arms, torso and legs, which is covered by clothing.
Another factor that can cause acne is infection with a lipid-loving bacterium called Propionibacterium acnes.
Acne is a common bacterium found in the skin and pores of almost all people. However, when the sebum (oil) from the skin becomes oxidized lipid, or rusty oil, due to oxidative stress and blocks the pores, it becomes an environment where the acne bacteria can easily proliferate, causing proliferation and inflammation, and acne is formed.
The increase in acne when you are not feeling well is also due to an imbalance in the immune system, which leads to a high level of oxidative stress in the body. Therefore, when oxidative stress is high, it is easy to get acne.
By lowering oxidative stress, acne may disappear. In the current TRI project to eradicate intractable acne, more than 80 percent of those who took antioxidants reported that their acne improved.
Antioxidant Action and Ingredients
There are often beauty products that claim to have antioxidant properties. However, there are some products that you should be careful about.
The results of experiments conducted by the Antioxidant Research Division of the Joint Research Department at Gifu University have shown that vitamin C has an antioxidant effect, but coenzyme Q10 alone has almost no antioxidant effect.
In the Antioxidant Research Division, we believe that in order to lower oxidative stress in the body, it is extremely important to not only counteract the oxidative stress that has formed in the body, but also to adjust the mitochondria, the organelles that produce oxidative stress.
In particular, it is impossible to regulate mitochondria with only one type of ingredient. In the same way, it is also difficult to lower the body’s oxidative stress by using only vitamin C or coenzyme Q10 alone.
If you are suffering from acne, you may be able to improve it with a lifestyle that lowers oxidative stress. And when choosing cosmetics and supplements with the expectation of antioxidant power, be sure to check if the products have proper medical evidence.